


One More Minute (One More Night)

by ainewrites



Category: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, this is fluff I'm not going to lie, with a bit of pining thrown in for good measure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 08:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ainewrites/pseuds/ainewrites
Summary: The music is loud and Leah is squished between her two best friends and watching Abby across the room, and maybe it's the atmosphere or maybe it's the way Abby is laughing, head tilted and dimples flashing, but Leah finds herself falling in love with this girl.But if she's truly being honest, she's been in love with Abby Suso for a long, long time.-A New Year's Eve Party, a crush, and a kiss





	One More Minute (One More Night)

If she’s being truly honest with herself, Leah doesn’t really do people. At least, not huge groups of people where she doesn’t know most of them.

So when she finds herself at an actual New Year’s Eve party outside of Simon’s basement with lots of people she doesn’t know, she’s not really sure why she agreed to do this in the first place.

It’s Garret hosting, so it’s made up of mostly the school jocks with the occasional theater nerd mixed in, and Leah isn’t apart of either of those groups. Of course, the normal gang is here: Nick is off wooing some girls with his guitar skills and Simon and Bram are off with Cal Price and a couple of the other theater kids and being disgustingly adorable, like usual.

Leah sees Martin at one point too, and he meets her eyes for a second before looking away in panic, most likely because of the death glare Leah was currently shooting his way. It’s been more than a year since he blackmailed Simon and outed him to the whole school, but Leah holds grudges like no one else when it comes to people mistreating her friends, and she still has to resist the urge to hunt him down just to punch him in the throat. He leaves the room hastily, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder at her as he goes.

And Abby…last Leah saw Abby, she was perched on the kitchen island laughing at some joke a guy that Leah doesn’t even recognize said and just generally being Abby, an eternally smiling ray of sunshine.

It makes Leah’s chest tight, but not in the bad, panic attack way. It’s a strange sensation that, if asked about, Leah would more describe like when you accidently skip a step on the stairs, but not bad. Dizzying and consuming yes, but not bad. More like an ache.

She didn’t- and doesn’t -know what to do about it, so she left the kitchen and is now perched on the stairs, trying to pretend like she’s not horribly uncomfortable. It’s a sensation made worse by the fact that she’s most likely the only one in the part who’s not just the tiniest bit drunk, the soda in her hand very much un-spiked. She’s not going to lie, it’s the slightest bit tempting to add a splash of rum or whatever the hell you add to cherry coke so you can drink soda and still get drunk. Everyone else seems like they’re having a great time, the alcohol in their system making them unselfconscious, if a bit annoyingly giggly.

But she has two reasons for not. One, she is not yet twenty-one, and she does not want the lecture she would get if she showed up at either the Spier’s or home drunk, and two, alcohol is the most disgusting thing she has ever tasted, judging by the few sips she’s had at family weddings or allowed by her mother.

Even Simon and Bram are a bit tipsy, as she quickly figures out. They find her on the staircase, plopping down next to her. She scoots over to allow them in, but there’s not much space, so Simon pretty much ends up sitting in Bram’s lap, not that he looks like he minds. His cheeks are flushed, and his glasses are a bit askew, and Bram’s bow tie is crooked. If Leah knew him better, she would reach up to fix it, but outside of him being Simon’s boyfriend, she really doesn’t know him that well. So instead she settles for fixing Simon’s glasses.

“Leah!” Simon says happily, raising his voice to be heard over the music. “Hi!”

“Hi,” Leah says, amused in spite of herself. “Having fun?”

“So much fun,” Simon says seriously, and then giggles. Bram turns a bit pink, which makes Leah think that Simon’s definition of fun has some empty room activities involved.

“Are you having fun?” Bram asks, ever polite, but Leah’s saved from answering by Simon shoving his sleeve in her face.

“Look, I’m wearing the shirt!”

It’s a button up shirt with little golden retrievers on it, Leah’s Christmas present to him. He’s smiling so broadly that Leah can’t help but laugh a little. She straightens his collar fondly, and he grins back at her. And for a second, Leah is comfortable even in the crowd of strange people. Because Simon always makes her feel comfortable, but then he and Bram are being called away, and she’s alone on the stairs again.

-

Somehow, she ends up with Nick next. He still has the guitar, but the crowd of freshman girls has somewhat cleared out, leaving only a few staring dreamily at him from a distance. She slides down the wall to sit beside him, carefully tucking the silver-blue material of her dress skirt around her legs. He’s absentmindedly strumming the guitar, barely heard over the music pumping through the house with enough force for her to feel in her chest.

“Searching for a new girlfriend?” Leah says drily, then instantly regrets it at the look on Nick’s face. Even though he and Abby broke up six months before, on supposedly amicable terms, he still gets a bit weird at the mention that they ever dated.

“Nah,” He says, although there’s a bit of a strain in his voice. “I think I’m good for now. I’ll wait for college.”

There’s a few moments of awkward silence, but then Nick sighs.

“I think I prefer New Year’s at the Spiers,” he says, looking just a little bit like a moping dog. “Because there I can fall asleep before midnight.”

Leah laughs.

-

Simon shows up about half an hour later, Bram-less this time, and a stack of Oreos in his hands. He looks a bit green and he falls more than slides down the wall next to Leah, landing with a thud and a groan.

“I don’t like being drunk,” he says miserably, even as he crams an Oreo into his mouth. Leah wrinkles her nose.

“You smell like bad wine.”

“Probably because I had bad wine,” Simon says around a mouthful of Oreo, offering one to Leah. She takes it, Nick leaning across her to steal one from Simon’s stack.

“That was a great idea,” Leah deadpans, taking a bite of the cookie, and Simon grins at her. Sometime over the last hour and half or so since she talked to him and Bram on the staircase his hair, formally tamed into submission has reverted to its usual mess of pale brown curls. Leah feels a flash of fondness for her friend, and for Nick on her other side, who has restarted his hopeless attempt to play classic rock at a volume that people could hear over the blasting, thudding pop music currently booming through the hidden speakers somewhere in the room.

Leah rests her head on Simon’s shoulder, and he rests his head on top of hers. And as she does, she notices Abby across the room. Abby is with Taylor, and they’re laughing about something, and there’s that feeling again, the strange feeling.

The music is loud and Leah is squished between her two best friends and watching Abby across the room, and maybe it's the atmosphere or maybe it's the way Abby is laughing, head titled and dimples flashing, but Leah finds herself falling in love with this girl.

But if she’s being truly honest, she’s been in love with Abby Suso for a long, long time.

“He’s so cute,” Leah hears Simon say dreamily, about Bram who’s once again in Simon’s line of sight, and typically Leah gets kind of annoyed about dreamy, but right now, she kind of agrees.

She gets it. Maybe for the first time in  her life, she gets it.

-

“You’ve managed to avoid me the entire night.”

Leah looks up and there’s Abby, standing above her, a smile on her face, and Leah’s mouth goes a little dry. Abby looks fantastic, in a knee-length silky red dress that leaves her shoulders bare. She makes Leah feel underdressed, even though she broke out her one formal dress for the party, and there’s that funny sinking, squeezing sensation in her chest again.

Abby’s wearing a party hat with the words Happy New Year’s emblazoned across it and she has another in her hands with she straps to Leah’s head. Leah doesn’t protest. She does protest though when Abby declares, “I haven’t seen you dance once tonight. Come on. We’re going to dance.”

“I don’t dance,” Leah protests even as Abby hauls her to her feet.

“Everyone dances,” Abby says, smiling. “Some of us just need a bit of encouragement, that’s all.  And we’re at a New Year’s party, it’s ten minutes to midnight…so, we should dance.” She pulls Leah out further, and although Leah protests, she doesn’t fight. Not really, anyways.

“Besides,” Abby continues, already starting to move her shoulders to the music, “Everyone is getting drunk. No one will be watching you.”

And maybe it’s because everyone else is so happy, maybe it’s the music, or maybe it’s Abby, already dancing, still holding both of Leah’s hands in hers. But it doesn’t really matter why it is or how it happens. Because Leah finds herself dancing.

Awkwardly and stiffly at first, more of the awkward, stiff dad-style dance than the flowing movements Abby is making, but the music is getting louder and she can feel the beat in her chest and Abby is smiling at her and there’s a flutter in Leah’s chest and a pull in her gut, and she’s dancing.

She never dances, not in front of people, but Abby is still holding her hands and Leah is just a little bit in love with this girl across from her, and so she dances.

At some point Simon and Bram joins them, both of them bobbing around a bit awkwardly at first, and then enthusiastically, and then Nick’s there too, doing some strange shuffle, and Abby’s laughing, and it makes Leah’s heart flutter again.

The song changes, slowly down, and couples are starting to come together. Garret stands on a chair with a phone in his hand, and announces that there’s twenty seconds to midnight. People cheer but it makes little to no mark on Leah, because Abby is still holding Leah’s hands and pulls her closer.

In the background, there are people counting down, but Leah’s head is spinning because Abby is so, so close, and the music is loud and Abby’s hands are on Leah’s waist now and Leah has hers around Abby’s neck and they’re so close and

Everyone is screaming and a confetti cannon goes off but that’s nothing at all, barely even registers to Leah because she’s kissing Abby and Abby is kissing her back. There are fireflies in her chest and starbursts in her veins and she is slowly and surely being set alight. They pull away, and Leah is breathless and Abby is grinning, party hat crooked and confetti in her hair and it’s so cute, so stupidly cute.

“Want to do that again?” Abby asks.

“No, I do not,” Leah says, and then quickly, before Abby could think that she was actually being serious, nods quickly and says, “of course I do!”

And they’re kissing again.

Leah has been crushing on this girl since she first walked into their English class however long ago, and now it’s officially a new year and she and Abby are kissing, and Abby tastes like orange juice and vodka and smells like cinnamon and vanilla and it’s intoxicating.

Abby is intoxicating, and Leah doesn’t think she’ll ever get enough of her.

-

After the countdown, the party starts to die down, and slowly people trickle out of Garret’s house, digging out car keys and calling Ubers, and in the chaos she and Abby are pulled away from each other. About fifteen minutes later, she finds herself in her car with Nick in the passenger seat and Abby, Simon, and Bram all crammed in the back. They’re all laughing and chattering, volume still loud, and even though it’s freezing out Leah rolls down the windows because her cheeks feel hot and flushed. No one seems to mind. They’re all high on the aftermath of the party, happy and just the slightest bit overtired, still dancing in the backseat even though there’s no music playing.

It’s a short drive to Simon’s house, and they all pile out of the car, heading towards the front door, but Leah waits, leaning against the passenger door. Abby comes around the car, hands shoved deep in her pockets, and Leah doesn’t know what to say. Not really.

Abby puts it perfectly. She leans forward and kisses Leah quickly, hard and fast, barely long enough for Leah to even register what’s happening. She pulls away, one corner of her mouth quirking up.

“Happy New Year, Leah Burke,” Abby says, and then she turns around and bounds down the front walk to catch up with the boys.

Leah touches her lips, tingling from even the barest of brushes, and she smiles into her hands.

“Happy New Year,” she whispers back, and then she shoves her hands into her pockets and goes to find her friends.

Maybe parties aren’t so bad, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually had this in my drafts for a while, but I figured I should wait until after Christmas to post it or else I'd be posting it, like, first week of December and that seems a bit too early for a New Year's fic.
> 
> Also, since I wrote this, the Love, Simon trailer came out and sometimes I have to rewatch it just to remind myself that it's real. Also, because I do things like this, the title of this fic comes from the song Surrender by Walk the Moon which is my new favorite song and also the song in the trailer. 
> 
> And, if you want to come find me elsewhere on the internet, I'm on Twitter as @ainewrites.


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